Poetry

Eucalypt: A Tanka Journal, Issue 36, 2024

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The latest Tanka Journal, arrived earlier this month and includes two of my new tanka amidst the many wondeeful  tanka and tankist writers.  It is an honour to be published with so many dedicated and good poets.

Thank you to  our  editor Julie Thorndyke for her dedication to our tanka and for their   sensitive presentation .

 

And sensitively placed with the poignat tanka of Rachel Colombo

*The Madonna della Pietà, informally known as La Pietà, is a marble sculpture of Jesus and Mary at Mount Golgotha representing the “Sixth Sorrow” of the Blessed Virgin Mary by Michelangelo Buonarroti, now in Saint Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And i love it is set with two of my dear friends Beverley George and Andrew Hede.

 

Spiritus: A Journal of Christian Spirituality Spring 2024 by Colleen Keating

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https://www.press.jhu.edu/journals/spiritus-journal-christian-spirituality

Very proud to have one of my  poems included in this exquisite journal. 

https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/924586/pdf

Spiritus: A Journal of Christian Spirituality

Spiritus is an interdisciplinary, ecumenical journal devoted to the scholarly study of Christian spirituality. Through insightful essays, reviews, poetry, visual images, and occasional translations of important texts, Spiritus seeks to appeal not only to scholars and academics, but also to ministers, practitioners, and those in the helping professions. It is the official journal of the Society for the Study of Christian Spirituality (SSCS).

The primary aim  of the journal are to:
• Promote research and dialogue within the growing interdisciplinary field of spirituality

This beautiful  international journal called Spiritus: A Journal of Christian Spirituality, Volume 24, Number 1. Spring 2024 arrived in the mail.

 It was affirming to find my poem so beautifully presented amongst some well known poets and even for me more exciting to find my poem  From the Dust of Stars opposite a  poem by the highly acclaimed poet Judith Beveridge, a poet I look up to and admire. 

 I feel honoured to be included in this journal of essays,  stories, book reviews and poetry.  This journal from John Hopkins Umiverseity Press  printed on recycled paper has  a very pleasant feel and is indexed in ATLA, and International Bibliography of Periodical Literature.

I especially love the cover which is a close-up of Native Australian Wattle Flowers from a painting by Judi Parkinson .

Thank you to the poetry editor  Mark S. Burrows Camden ME. for their dedication to poetry. 

 

 

 

From the dust of stars

A keke-ke-ik cry skirls the air, not from the lone  
gull high in the green cloud, not the cormorant fishing
the lake in early light, nor from swallows in their 
scythe and skim at the edge but a pair of plovers
on the bank, their urgent call in rhythm with
the pace of circus stilt-walkers on red legs.

Spurred wings swoop low in pursuit–
qui vive their defence of nest and chicks hidden in 
verge of bristled grass. Strategically, they strut
grim-masked faces, sometimes coy in priested–collar
sometimes they stretch their white necks and shriek
like angry roosters. I sense their desperation

and step back to honour their cry.
Plover instinct jolts my mind to parenthood. 
Memory of a little one, nuzzled at the breast, hand 
curved warm skin to skin swaddled in the pre-dawn.  
Now my eyes stay on these ground birds. 
I muse how we come from the dust of stars fired 

from the same exploding cosmos.
A clear morning opens into the sky.  A new day –
joggers, walkers some with dogs on leads, 
picnickers, fishermen, all possible intruders
keep the plovers on the alert. A black crow waits 
on a nearby branch, its eye a laser beam.

Colleen Keating

 

 

 

Sydney Anthology Launch 14th April 2024 by Vanessa Proctor

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Sydney Anthology Launch 14th April 2024

On a warm and sunny Sunday afternoon 25 haiku poets and poetry lovers met in the Gallery, a heritage room in the Kirribilli Neighbourhood Centre to celebrate the Sydney launch of under the same moon: Fourth Australian Haiku Anthology (Forty South, 2023).

Poets travelled from all over Sydney and from as far afield as the Central Coast, Bathurst, Canberra and Coffs Harbour to attend the event.

Vanessa Proctor acted as the MC, introducing the incoming president of the Australian Haiku Society, Leanne Mumford, to speak about haiku and the AHS. Three AHS presidents were present, one current and two past presidents: Vanessa Proctor and Beverley George. Lyn Reeves, who has recently retired from her role as Vice President after 24 years service to the AHS, was recognised for her tireless work for the Society and for Australian haiku.

L to R, top row: Leanne Mumford, David George, Laurel Astle, Rohan Buettel, Beverley George, Vanessa Proctor
L to R, bottom row: Colleen Keating, Carol Reynolds, Barbara Fisher, Margaret Mahony, Kent Robinson, Jane Gibian

Vanessa Proctor then spoke about the editorial process with co-editors Lyn Reeves and Rob Scott, the aims for the anthology and the process of selecting the haiku. She examined how the strength of this anthology lies in the quality of its work and the way in which it offers a distinctly Australian view of the world.

As the anthology is dedicated to John Bird and Beverley George, Beverley began the readings with Max Ryan’s haiku in tribute to AHS founder John Bird. David George then read Gregory Piko’s haiku celebrating Beverley’s contribution to Australian haiku.

Contributors went on to read their featured haiku and those of poets who were not able to attend.

All present celebrated the occasion with food and wine and enjoyed the views from the balcony of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. Books were bought; old connections between poets were rekindled and new connections made. Plans were set in motion for future gatherings of NSW haiku poets.

Vanessa Proctor
All photos courtesy of Gavin Austin

A great write up by Vanessa and I just want to add I was proud to read my  three published  haiku and I enjoyed the beautiful venue of the neighbourhood centre. From the old  laced wrought iron verandra we had views of the Opera House  and the Harbour bridge. as we sipped our red wine (well some of us ) and we discussed poetry and friendship..

And we connected with old friendships once again

 

White Pebbles Haiku Group Autumn Meeting 2024

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White Pebbles Haiku Group Autumn Meeting 2024

A warm, calm morning greeted the gathering of our White Pebbles haiku poets for our autumn ginko on Saturday 9th March 2024. It was an Indian Summer day. The heady air of gardenias was coloured by a shimmer of dragonflies fussing over the lotus pond with its rush of cascading water. Added to this was chatter and laughter of children. Ducks and koi roiled with enthusiasm as many little fingers dropped pellets of food into the pond from the viewing platform.

Present at our regular venue, Gosford/Edogawa Japanese Gardens and Regional Gallery, were Beverley George, Gwen Bitti, Maire Glacken, Marilyn Humbert, Colleen Keating, Kent Robinson, and Michael Thorley. Apologies had been received from Samantha Sirimanne Hyde and  Pip Griffin

In the weeks prior to our meeting, Beverley, our convener, had emailed a worksheet to use as guidance for reflection and sharing.  After gathering for catchup and coffee, we set out at 10.30 a.m. on our ginko walk and gathered at 11 a. m. for our workshop.  We began by sharing haiku we had written about white pebbles, then our haiku on the word ‘pathway’.

Next we were asked to ponder the Japanese concept of ma, the contained distance and space between objects. We learnt it also refers to time: the intervals between action and event, between sound and silence. We were encouraged to look into the spaces; observe the small things. It was interesting to workshop this idea and listen to the varied responses, including some haiku ready or nearly ready for publishing.

We proudly read our contributions published in Echidna Tracks, and other haiku published elsewhere. Finally we each shared a haiku written by one of the Japanese Masters that we had brought along. A few were able to stay on for lunch at this lovely venue.

Colleen Keating
Member of White Pebbles Haiku Group

White Pebbles Haiku Group Summer Meeting 2024

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White Pebbles Haiku Group Summer Meeting 2024

Due to unforeseen circumstances, with weather threatening safe travel, the White Pebbles summer meeting scheduled for December 9th was deferred to January 13th.

Six of our members were present and we were joined by welcome guest, Pip Griffin. Michael Thorley and Samantha Hyde were unable to attend this time and they were missed.

We gathered at 10 a.m. for a catch-up and refreshing cuppa, before setting off on our silent ginko around the garden, looking appreciatively at wider landscapes and into small spaces, listening to natural sounds, sniffing the perfumes of leaves and blossom and alert to the shifting patterns of shadows and reflections.

At 11 a.m. we gathered at an oval table in a quiet room we hire at each meeting for workshopping.

Each member had heeded the suggested worksheet distributed in advance of the meeting, and shared haiku they brought with them relevant to that, in addition to those jotted on the ginko. As always, the sharing of haiku and respect for each other’s work was paramount to the enjoyment of the day and we look forward to our autumn meeting in the gardens.

Group photo
left to right: Pip Griffin, Gwen Bitti, Marilyn Humbert, Colleen Keating, Kent Robinson, Beverley George, Maire Glacken

White Pebbles Spring Meeting and Ginko 2023

White Pebbles haiku poets gathered at the Edogawa Gardens at the Gosford Regional Gallery and Arts Centre on Saturday morning, 16th September, 2023. Present were Maire Glacken, Marilyn Humbert, Gwen Bitti, Colleen Keating, Beverley George and Kent Robinson, with apologies received from Samantha Sirimanne Hyde and Michael Thorley.

A glorious spring day greeted us. Ducks and koi carp shared the pond and water features of the gardens. As they fed the ducks, children’s laughter echoed among the beautifully manicured flora. Spring blooms of every hue brightened the walkways.

We met in the Gallery’s cafe for a catch-up before a stroll through the gardens. Over coffee, Marilyn Humbert, advised us that, in order to refine our sense of observation as we strolled, we look into the small spaces – distill whatever we saw, and trust ourselves and our senses as we composed our haiku.  We strolled the garden, feeling the warmth of the spring sunshine on our faces. The scent of blooms bursting all about and the joy of being immersed in birdsong were intoxicating.

Now it was time for a round table meeting in the niche beneath the art gallery. At the beginning of the meeting our dear friend and valued member of White Pebbles, Gail Hennessy, who sadly recently passed, was remembered fondly. The round table about which we gather is extremely significant to our group. Around it we may share ideas and each single poet is as one with all others. How fortunate we feel, that White Pebbles is such a mutually supportive group!

Beverley George distributed for purchase “under the same moon”, the Fourth Australian Haiku Anthology, in which several White Pebbles members have haiku. (Many thanks to Vanessa Proctor for furnishing Beverley with copies of this fine anthology in advance of our meeting.)

Echidna Tracks 11 was spoken of, with congratulations to all White Pebbles poets who feature therein.

We then moved on to the business of the day. Beverley had asked that we each bring a haiku that had inspired us in the early days of our haiku journey, as well as one of our own that we had composed in those early days. Matsuo Basho featured strongly as an early influence to many.

Next, we considered the haiku and images that had been gathered on the garden walk earlier. This proved an extremely productive exercise. Beverley presented some haiku that Michael Thorley had sent in. Thank you, Michael. Your sensitive haiku were a fine addition to our meeting and very much appreciated by all.

Marilyn Humbert had prepared a presentation entitled “The Art of Discovery”. She advised us in composing haiku to observe light and shade at different times throughout the day, different seasons, different weather conditions, different sounds and different moods. And to be aware of the ephemeral things – feathers, stones, bird calls, the shapes of twigs and leaves, tree trunks and bark, rough and smooth. To trust our senses. Helpfully, Marilyn supplied a number of examples of haiku written from different points of view. Many thanks to Marilyn for a most informative and thought provoking presentation.

At this point, towards the end of our meeting, we acknowledged our members who have recently had books published.
* Gwen Bitti has had a novel entitled “Between Two Worlds” published by Ginninderra Press. Gwen spoke of the writing of “Between Two Worlds” and furnished each White Pebble poet with a sachet of fragrant herbs, a snippet of silk and one of hessian to enhance sensory perception, as she spoke.
* Colleen Keating’s carefully researched book, “The Dinner Party” was also published by Ginninderra Press and we enjoyed hearing about it.
* And we recalled that only recently, in 2022, Samantha Sirimanne Hyde’s book “The Lyrebird’s Cry” was published.
Congratulations All!

This concluded the White Pebbles Spring meeting 2023. The general sentiment was all are looking forward to our summer ginko.

Kent Robinson

Group photo
Back, L to R: Colleen, Kent; Front, L to R: Beverley, Maire, Gwen, Marilyn

 

Author: leanneausthaiku

Secretary, Australian Haiku Society

Notre Dame Cathedral, Hildegard of Bingen and the Brandenburg Choir

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Notre Dame  

A story of ritual,
                          of resolution
                                              and resurrection. 
by the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra.

Live, vulnerable and raw, the story  . . . . Notre Dame  . . . with the Baroque music , the bringing in Victor Hugo with the Hunchback of Notre Dame,  the bells, the continuing restoration, the horrific tragedy of the fire in 2019 and the rising up again from the ashes was a very rewarding  musical, afternoon experience.

As the music played, the large screen through church panels told the story in slowly moving  pictures .

And the most delightful surprise of my afternoon was hearing the music of Hildgard of Bingen chosen for the climax of the performance.  Out of the silence  it was her music that was chosen to speak of hope in the moment of despair. 

It was in the stark climax of destruction as one turns in despair for the next step to move out of this dark place, to rise again  . . . and the soprano  of their choir, I think Bonnie  de la Hunty,   who walked out in white amidst  the left over smoke  and smouldering ash and with her exquisite soprano voice sang  O Virga ac Diadema  (from Hildegard of Bingen, written while she was building her own church and Abbey in the 12th century as Notre Dame was also being built. ) 

She sings Hildegard’s song here today 2nd March 2024 originally written in the 12th century .

O blossom, you did not spring from dew 
nor from the drops of rain
nor from the windy air flown over you;
but divine radiance has brought you forth 
upon that noblest bough

For a moment I was Hildegard gazing at the young sister, Richardis  whom she had trained in music from when she was young , listening to the beauty of her voice,

When the sisters harmonise in a chorus
and Richardis sings the solo to end the opera
tears fill Hildegard’s eyes, she bows her head.   (from Hildegard of Bingen C Keating)

and I remember Hildegard’s anticipation in the poem before this which works so poignantly for  the story of Notre Dame

Amid the blossoms of their second Easter
birds fly to and fro building nests
and hildegard sends out her invitations.
Music will bring light to the dark.
Stillness will become dancing.
The Bishop of Mainz
will bless our newly built church.
There is to be a concert.
All are welcome.       (from Hildegard of Bingen by C Keating)

  I especially loved the  the sense of warmth and fun and lightheartedness in the performance with the story of the young Australian restorer  ( a bit brash but i understood her being there)and Victor Hugo (well the ghost of Victor Hugo)

The Australian review  proclaimed  that a ”concert with the Australian Branadeberg Orchestra is like stepping back in time as the sound of the period instruments resurrect Baroque and Classic works with reverence and authority.

How Michael and i remember Notre Dame Cathedral from our cruise on the Seine on our Europe tour in 2015.

Notre Dame Cathedral  2015 from The Joy of paris

by Colleen Keating

1.

from our cruise on the Seine 
we gaze in awe at your aged beauty
your spires, domes, flying buttresses
reaching upwards like arms open in praise
dressed in a grandness  of ancient glory
standing for so many centuries 

2.

close up we stand on your sacred  land
where in ancient times a pagan temple to Jupiter stood
lightness of leaves a tracery on your flaxon stone
intricacies and details of story carved into you 
like tatooes  marked on your body to tell a story
mythical and demonic creatures  grotesques  
and  gargoyles touch of pagan  . . . stamp of christanity
all for the Mother, mother of earth, mother of us all 

3

we enter your cool dark sanctuary 
looking up into the heavens of your spires
feeling so small    yet safe 
as if your arms  sturdy and forever hold us
burn candles with murmur of ancestral prayers
on your breath. Flickers of rainbow light play
in hazy dust motes as your Rose windows l

ike the eyes of a goddesses catch 
the cosmic sun to channel into you
the light making  miracles in your spectrum of emotions
blues ,crimsons,golds  shine for our memories

 

4

burning
smoke gives the warning  
flames orange red purple rage
burning into our hearts

our mother is burning
our earth is breaking
her oak spires –  collapse

treasures grabbed
spared  saved
peoples lives spared

 days of heart break 
we stand in our kitchen
thousands of miles from Paris

grasping our throats
as if the smoke chokes
we grasp at the breath of ancient oaks

burning and later we stand
hands on our heart in mourning.
till we hear the leader

and people of Paris declare

‘we will work to save her
we call on the world send your best craft people
she will rise up in glory

in glory once again’

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

U3A Talk on the unfolding of her writing life by Pip Griffin

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Last Friday 9th February 2024 , poet and friend,  Pip Griffin led a very enjoyable and informative morning,
as U3A speaker for the month, at the Leichhardt Library.  Pip shared with us the unfolding of  her writing life, the challenges of writing a verse novel and with a vivid and colourful set of slides took us through the inspiration and process of writing three of her many books.  There was a great gathering of more then 30 people who came to support and hear Pip’s very interesting journey.  And we had a great celebratory lunch afterwards with some friends to cheer Pip’s very successful morning.

 

Pip introduced us to her earlier and highly acclaimed verse novel Ani Lin: The Journey of a Chinese Buddhist Nun.  The slides of her actual journey in China and on the edge of  Tibet where she found the inspiration for her Buddhist Nun were excellent and she thanks her son John for his assistance in this. 

As the dust jacket informs its readers: “In 1892, 18 year old Lin enters a mountain nunnery, where she begins a journey that will take her on a difficult spiritual and physical path.  Her dream is to work for equality for women in the Buddhist world.”  In her Afterword Griffin announces that this is an imaginary tale: “In 1874, my imaginary nun, Lin, was born in a village near Yunnanfu (capital of Yunnan Province and renamed Kunming in the 1920s).  She died in 1939, the year I was born.  Her story was conceived in 1985 when I first travelled to Guilin (Guangxi Province) and experienced feelings of déjà vu in the spectacular karst landscape.”

Pip’s opening poem “Coming home from the market” exemplifies the ethos behind the poem novel as she introduces the young girl to her readers:

 I ride my bicycle
 on the bumpy road
 through hazy landscape
 patchwork gardens illuminated
 by the setting sun
 stacked mountains layered
 against orange sky
This is a work laden with possibilities that result out of an engagement with people, places and landscape, real but also mythically-charged.  And as her reviewer, Patricia Prime, wrote a little while back.

“The journey is beautifully evoked by Griffin as the girl traverses rivers, mountains, sacred peaks, sanctuaries and a visit to the Mu household where, in the poem “Visiting the Mu household” “Prince Mu has asked us / to take tea with him.”

Griffin’s poem novel is activated by small moments unfolding from the fragments of daily minutiae: a sense of miracle, bliss is localized, transcendence is brief and raw, insight comes from focusing on the elements of Lin’s journey, the playing of her flute, wandering in the lamasery garden, meditating, eating and drinking. “ 

Next Pip spoke of her research and writing  of  her verse novel, Margaret Caro : The Extraordinary Life of a Pioneering Dentist, New Zealand 1848-1938.  This is the story of her great aunt  and  pioneer in New Zealand, first female dentist in NZ, a convert to Seventh-day Adventism  and social reformer . A towering figure she and her husband  Jacob (a Physcian )  worked in many difficult places including in NZ goldfields .

Lastly Pip spoke of her highly acclaimed and award winning verse  novel, Virginia & Katherine: The Secret Diaries  . It is well summed up in the following from the SWW web site.

… K & I had our relationship, & never again shall I have one like it – Virginia Woolf, October 1924
In January 1923, Virginia Woolf noted in her diary that Katherine Mansfield had promised two years earlier to send her diary to her. She was perplexed and hurt that she had not, not knowing how ill Katherine had been. The ‘secret diaries’ – Virginia’s begun after Katherine’s death in 1923, Katherine’s begun in 1920 are written in lyrical poems inspired by the friendship (and intense rivalry) of the two women. Virginia and Katherine recognised that they were ‘both after the same thing’ in their compulsive, innovative work of ‘writing their lives’.  The book presents a fresh dialogue that also suggests a tantalising possibility.
Pip Griffin, with meticulous research, creates biographical, poetical fiction that is fascinating and intriguing, filled with wonderful quotes and speculation. A pleasure to deeply dive in – jenni nixon, poet
Publisher: Pohutukawa Press
ISBN:  9780980318456
AUD 20.00 plus postage available from:
The author pipgriffin8@gmail.com
Wheelers Book www.wheelers.co.nz
James Bennett Pty Ltd www.bennett.com.au

 

1.Ani Lin: The Journey of a Chinese Buddhist Nun, Pip Griffin.  Pohutukawa Press, Leichhardt, N.S.W. 2014, Australia.  

2.Margaret Caro : The Extraordinary Life of a Pioneering Dentist, New Zealand 1848-1938.  Pohutukawa Press, 2020

3. Virginia & Katherine: The Secret Diaries   Pohutukawa Press, 2021

 

 

The Mozzie, Poetry Journal by Colleen Keating

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Excited and honoured to have three poems published in the latest Mozzie. Thank you Ron Heard for keep on keeping on . It is a valuable contribution to our poetry world.

a poet

on Lennox Beach
i strode out 
the long flat expanse 
in my younger  faster days 
a shape-shifter in the dawn

above a brown wide-winged 
kestrel glided too
on the whipped air currents above
then dived into the grassy
sandbank and took off

Back at my cabin 
i wrote 
a poem from the heart 
stirred by this bird   posted it
to the Mozzie   and the editor –

Ron Heard  published it 
and I saw
my first ever poem in print
and that is how my life 
as a poet took wings

Colleen Keating

LOSS: VOL 9 The latest edition in the Lifespan series from Pure Slush Poetry Anthologies.

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Very affirming to have a poem in the latest edition of the Lifespan Series from Pure Slush – Loss and exciting to be published with some other family friends including Pip Griffin.  

Loss Lifespan Vol. 9

570 pages – to be published February 2024

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paperback ISBN: 978-1-922427-36-6

ePub ISBN: 978-1-922427-37-3

Kindle ISBN: 978-1-922427-84-7

to purchase Loss, click here for  paperback  /  ePub  (ePubs can be read on Apple devices, and all eReaders except Kindle)  /  Kindle

For Loss

Featuring the poetry and prose of Alex Reece Abbott, Carol Adams, Edward Ahern, Tobi Alfier, Dee Allen, Kathleen Aponick, Richard Clarke, Ken Cohen, Sage Cohen,, Flemming George, Declan Geraghty,  Gabby Gilliam, JW Goll, Jim Gormley, Ken Gosse, John Grey, Pip Griffin, Betty Naegele Gundred, Chris Hall, Ronald T. Hardwick, Richard Harries, Doug Hawley, Tom Hazuka, Mark Heathcote, Henry, Kathleen Herrmann, Theresa Hickey, Matthe Fiona M. Jones, Kenneth M. Kapp, Colleen Keating, Alan Kennedy, gundo, Judith Shapiro, Pegi Deitz Shea, Emily Shearer, Josh Sherman, Michael Shoemaker, Joan Seliger Sidney, Cheryl Snell, Amy Soricelli, Gail Sosinsky, Adrienne Stevenson, Robin Stratton, Marianne Szlyk, Christopher Tattersall, Phillip Temples, Suzette Thompson, Lydia Trethewey, Lucy Tyrrell, Leo Vanderpot, Linden Van Wert, Donald R. Vogel, Kenneth Wagner, Zhihua Wang, Tony Warner, Kresha Richman Warnock, Alison Wassell, B. D. Watson, Michael Webb, Brian Weston, Lynn White, Thomas Reed Willemain, Jeral Williams, Todd Williams, Russell E. Willis, Allan J. Wills, Mike Wilson, Melissa E. Wong, Anne Harding Woodworth, Stephen Paul Wren, Mantz Yorke and Gary Zenker.

 

My poem chosen for the Anthology

morning litany  the day after

air tastes brittle         hits hard                    
like the head of a nail being pounded 

there has been no rain for weeks 
earth is dry 

leaves   dusty and blueish 
curl in foetal positions 

caught 
in a Philip Glass time warp 

the antiphon of morning birds 
is devoured by an leaf blower 

roaring hungrily nearby
the tree out the back sacrificed

 because someone said it was dead    
lies weeping cut up in small offerings

birds that nested in its knotted hollows
have fled 

and i have  to look away from
being a witness 

away from TV images 
Gaza Ukraine Mali Israel

garish glint of metal and concrete   mock
new home units towering out of place

the riff of rivulets in Coups Creek muted
in welled-up rock crevices   

later   leaning into the warm dimpled trunk
of a doyenne of the bush  i watch a flock

of spotted pardalotes   their tiny pieces of sun
wild and cheerful  skittle the morning

Opus, a life with music by Pip Griffin A Review by Colleen Kearing

colleen Poetry

 

A REVIEW by Colleen Keating publ. in Womens Ink Journal Summer 2023

What more powerful way to reflect on your journey of life than entwined with the memory of music. Exquisitely wrought, Pip Griffin’s Opus: a life with music, gives us snapshots, sometimes softened, sometimes shocking but always honed and beautifully crafted, revealing the deep perception and intimacy we have come to know in her poetry. Using music to unearth memories of her life, these poems are infused with frankness and authenticity. With themes of love, betrayal, loss, nostalgia and resilience we experience the connection between music and the human spirit, as in the poem, Mahler 1:

His genius still draws bows

across my body as I sit with seagulls

in winter sunlight

and in a moment of serendipity in a later poem, Philip Glass in Florence:

Glass begins to play

his layered, hypnotic compositions

his fingers entrancing us 

into a fourth dimension

and we are reminded of the universal solace that music can offer in fraught, fragmented times of conflict:

you took the vinyl record from its sleeve

compelling us to sit and listen  

to the gentle swelling harmonies

letting Vaughan Williams sing us back 

until our souls returned 

This collection of poetry is divided into seven sections. In the section called Air on a G String, Pip writes of the funeral after the tragic death of  her sister:

Though her funeral service is a blur

the music lives forever in my body

soundtrack to her sudden violent death

In the poem Keeper we hear the connection between mother and music: 

At thirteen I’ve become her keeper –

my best friend whom I adore

who chivvies me to practice scales 

 . . .

whose own ambitions dribbled away 

like the gin I watch 

drain slowly down the kitchen sink.

and later in Resurrection:

Singing the ‘Hallelujah Chorus’

at one with the voices of a hundred 

she’s alive , the last of her bonds broken. 

The trumpet sounds for her –

Opus is imbued with music, including that of the ocean and sometimes birds. Pip’s selection of music is eclectic and ecumenical: from Bach to Brahms, Britten to Brubeck, Chopin to choirs and the cello, Elgar and Elvis, Handel to Haley, Mahler to Leonard Cohen to name but a few. Published by Ginninderra Press, Opus is an engaging collection and highly recommended. 

Colleen Keating